After almost 50 years of fusion research the time has arrived when fusion processes in experimental plasmas are increasingly getting important. In JET the genuine fuel of a fusion reactor was used for the first time in late 1991, in TFTR the same happened in late 1993, and in JET an extended period of experiments of this kind has just been started. Therefore it is getting more and more rewarding to deal with the problems related to the ignition and burning of plasmas.